Sea Change

It appears that the North Atlantic currently does not play as large a role in the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as was expected in modelling exercises (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/03/oceans-capacity-to-absorb-co2-overestimated-study-suggests). It was assumed that the photosynthetic activity of diatoms would incorporate the gas and that these, relatively large planktonic particles, would then sink into the depths where the carbon would remain for an extended period. It now appears that most of the photosynthetic activity in the surface waters is by much smaller organisms, such as cyanobacteria, which don't sink very effectively and actually release the 'greenhouse gas' relatively quickly. This probably means that we have to work harder to curtail climate change.